'War on terror' hurts human rights

Mary Robinson explains why the so-called 'war on terror' has damaged International law.

A high-level panel of legal experts found that the western countries have actively undermined international law in the course of the 'war on terror.'

Three years ago the International commission of Jurists, a non-governmental agency based in Geneva, set up the panel to investigate human rights abuses after the 9/11 attacks.

They found that illegal practices like torture, invasion of privacy, rendition, and long-term detention without access to lawyers and courts, like in Guantanamo, had eroded human rights worldwide and encouraged other regimes to ignore those rights.